Archive for the ‘Mike Hegan’ Category

I went to a White Sox game three weeks ago and saw Melky Cabrera hit for the cycle. The feat, nearly as rare as a no-hitter—287 cycles and 263 no-hitters in major league history—has been accomplished twice since then, by Felix Pie and Troy Tulowitzki, bringing the number of cycles for the year to seven, more than in any season since 1933, in which a record eight players hit for the cycle. Here’s that list of eight:

Quite a list! Besides five Hall of Famers, you’ve got three other renowned baseball figures (Pepper Martin for epitomizing the Gas House Gang; Babe Herman for epitomizing the lovable, hapless “Dem Bums” era of the Brooklyn Dodgers; and Pinky Higgins for reputedly being, while manager of the Red Sox, a racist) who all had very good playing careers.

The jury is still out on whether the cycle-hitting class of 2009 can match 1933’s collection of stars and superstars. See any future Hall of Famers in the list below? (I count one can’t-miss, as long as he stays healthy.)

No Hall of Famers here. The closest to Cooperstown would be Cesar Cedeno, an unsurprising member of the list. (In fact, the slugging speedster hit for the cycle twice in his career.) On the other hand, infielders Tim Foli and Mike Phillips, who had a career 36 home runs between them, seem very unlikely cycle-hitters. Mike Hegan is perhaps an even more inexplicable member of this club, as the triple he legged out that day on his 33-year-old wheels was the last of the 18 triples he managed in his career. Amazingly enough, he did all his damage against arguably the best pitcher in the league that year, Mark Fidrych. Because the Bird started the game, Hegan had a much greater audience than a late-season matchup between the Tigers and Brewers would have otherwise drawn.

I wonder if there was much, if any, of a fuss made over Hegan when he had completed his feat. If my experience of being at a game where an opposing player hits for the cycle is any guide, I doubt it. When Cabrera slid into third for a triple, few at the game even knew this was all he had needed to add his name to the list of cycle-hitters. I saw a guy in a Yankees cap a few rows ahead of me say the word “cycle” to his buddy, but I didn’t know for sure what was happening until they put it up on the big screen. The game was already all but over for the White Sox, who were getting blown out, so there was no reason to hold back on acknowledging a little bit of history, but I would characterize the applause for Cabrera as somewhere between “polite” and “a smattering of.” Certainly there had been a much bigger roar when “fries” edged “Big Mac” and “Egg McMuffin” in the between-innings McDonalds race on the big screen.

Anyway, here’s some belated applause for Mike Hegan, whose career had some high points (a World Series appearance at age 21; the distinction of being the one and only All-Star for the one and only edition of the Seattle Pilots), but who never matched the perennial all-star status of his father, Jim, considered by some to have been the greatest fielding catcher in baseball history.